According to campaign group Labour Behind The Label, there are approximately 24 million garment workers worldwide. Around 80% of those are women.

"Conditions for the women making our clothes are harsh," Ilana Winterstein, a director at Labour Behind The Label tells HuffPost UK Lifestyle.

"Many face working excessive hours - often 14-16 hours per day - with forced overtime and no job security, for poverty wages and without trade union rights recognised.

"They suffer poor health, are victims of sexual and physical abuse and cannot afford to send their children to school."

A garment worker in Bangladesh

Many UK brands manufacture their products using factories abroad, in countries such as India, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Winterstein tells us the majority of factories do not have adequate health and safety checks in place. Workers might be using old machines in factories with bars on the windows and locked doors. There are often no fire extinguishers on site.

"This has resulted in deadly factory fires over recent years," she says. "There is systemic exploitation across the industry and the repression of trade unions means that workers are often too fearful to speak out about their reality."

Boramey Hun, an ActionAid policy and campaign manager who is based in Cambodia, agrees that conditions inside garment factories need to be improved.

She explains that workers are usually placed in groups, or teams, within a factory. Each team is given a set amount of items they must produce and targets are alarmingly high.

"If they run to the bathroom, they have to be very quick, otherwise it will affect how much they can produce and they might end up not meeting the quota," she says.

"Workers often end up holding themselves from going to the bathroom. The arrangement makes it very difficult for some workers who are not at the same health level as others and can lead to team breakdown among workers."

As consumers in the UK, it's all too easy to be seduced by the lure of fast fashion.

But Hun points out that our shopping habits contribute to the problems faced by female garment workers.

"Many high street brands were producing at the factories," Winterstein says. "Many families lost their only bread winner and are now struggling to survive, and of the survivors many cannot afford medical bills, and are too injured to work in a factory again in an area with few other employment prospects.

"Others who are able to work are stigmatised as survivors of Rana Plaza, turned away by factory managers who believe they are damaged goods and won't be able to work as hard."

HuffPost UK Lifestyle contacted Benetton for comment on this campaign, but have yet to hear back at the time of publication.

Winterstein believes companies and governments need to establish a living wage in order to truly help garment workers aboard.

"So much rests on this and the links between health, safety and wages are evident," she says.

"It is not enough for brands to state that their suppliers pay a minimum wage, as often this falls well below what is needed to live with dignity. Brands need to engage with local trade unions to ensure that workers voices are heard."

Garment workers campaigning in Cambodia

Until a living wage is established, consumers here in the UK can help improve conditions for garment workers abroad by putting pressure on companies back here in the UK.

"Boycotting may have to be the final straw," Hun says.

If millions of women are working in horrific conditions, usually under male bosses, to produce clothes that are sold here in the UK, fashion is most definitely a feminist issue.

As feminists, we all have a responsibility to make sure these women are treated with the respect they deserve.

As Winterstein says: "No one should live in poverty for the price of a cheap t-shirt."